Press Release
SMI Develops Silicon Germanium Tin (SiGeSn) Growth System
Piscataway, NJ - August 16, 2018 - Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (“SMI”) is pleased to announce that it has recently optimized a design version of its NanoV CVD™ Research Reactor for exploring growing thin films Silicon Germanium Tin (SiGeSn) materials.
The NanoV CVD™ Research System shown, is configured for growth on single 2" wafers, a 3" platter is also available. The 2" substrate reactor has many inimitable advantages; some of which include its optional height adjustable water cooled showerhead, the substrate susceptor rotation, upgradeable option to include a double wall for very high temperature operation,and plasma enhancement, among others options.
“The height adjustable showerhead is an important feature for some researchers since it changes the distance between gas injection and substrate and thus, gas phase pre-reaction pathways.” commented Dr. Arul Arjunan, a Research Scientist at Structured Materials Industries, Inc., adding “SMI designed a height adjustable modular showerhead to allow exploration of these effects (along with rotation) with different chemistries. The showerhead modification allowed the showerhead-to-susceptor distance to be adjusted to determine the best position for a given set of process parameters as well as tune the pre-reactions, efficiency, and uniformity.”
Image on the right shows the SMI in-house NanoV CVD™ Reactor with a 2" wafer platter in place - this system can also run a 3" size wafer.
The NanoV CVD™ System for the SiGeSn growth also optionally features substrate rotation through the SMI SpinCVD™ rotation assembly. The substrate rotation helps to improve uniformity and efficiency as well as minimize pre-reactions. At high speed rotation (several hundred rpm) rotation generates forced convection which can be used to enhance laminar flow and thus uniformity and efficiency.
The plasma enhancement option can catalyze low temperature cracking of the precursors, provide radicals to enhance reaction pathways, and enhance surface atom mobility; all of which are important for the growth of SiGeSn. SMI offers a low cost unregulated 180 – 250 kHz output frequency 1 kW power scale plasma option that can generally operate through several tens of Torr or a high end 13.56MHz 300-Watt plasma source option that operates in the mTorr to a few Torr range.
Image on the left shows the SMI in-house NanoV CVD™ Reactor with a plasma ignited.
These tool developments have been supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (Contract #: DE-SC0015164) wherein SMI is funded to develop SiGeSn based IR Photodiode Sensors and waveguides on Si chips. That work is supported by a subcontract with Professor Hongbin Yu of Arizona State University.
The NanoV CVD™ Tool is a vertical reactor system designed to provide the researcher with the most complete and versatile low cost CVD platform on the market to investigate of the widest range of materials and amorphous films and structures such as epitaxy, polycrystalline, or nanowires and nanotubes. This one platform is conveniently configurable for either oxidizing or reducing environments. Simple exchangeable components in a small footprint at an economical price allow the researcher infinite process variability – allowing great flexibility in adapting to changing research needs or supporting multiple material research needs on one simple platform with low cost, modular, easily reconfigured components.
About Structured Materials Industries, Inc.
Structured Materials Industries, Inc. has an extensive history in working with customer/partners to deliver results in SBIR/STTR and other awards. We can provide a support infrastructure for writing award winning proposals and provide the physical support infrastructure for carrying out awarded programs through completing customer innovations or calling on collaborators to fullfill innovations. We are always open to, in confidentially, exploring additional partnerships and collaborations. SMI has worked on various projects featuring Gallium Oxide (in addition to other oxides), TMDs, AlGaN, InGaN, BN, Graphene, CNTs, Nanowires, Compound Semiconductors, Oxides, Dielectrics, Ferroelectrics, Phase Change Chalcogenides, Fuel Cell Materials, Thin Film Batteries, Metals, and so on as well as has grown materials on a diverse set of substrates using in-house tools.
Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (SMI), with over 60 fielded MOCVD tools and 10 MOCVD and ALD process demonstration tools in-house, has extensive result oriented experience in providing materials, hardware, and device assistance to other businesses as well as research and development organizations. SMI is a leading provider of thin film research and development MOCVD, PECVD, and ALD deposition systems for electronic, optical and electro-optic device fabrication, among other applications. We produce systems for research and production, in sizes ranging from stand-alone systems to high volume production tools. SMI also maintains an in-house applications laboratory, with facilities for materials characterization and device fabrication.
To take advantage of SMI material development or consulting services contact us today to get more information and quoted. SMI is also happy to participate in the development of proposals and budgetary quotations!